


low on sleep

by nanasuoka (DJBunn3)



Series: Voltron Bingo [9]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gamer, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Gamer Lance, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-09-02 13:44:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16788100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DJBunn3/pseuds/nanasuoka
Summary: “It’s one in the morning,” Keith continues disapprovingly. “Have you taken a break since I left, or have you been playing this whole time?”“I’ll go to bed in a minute,” Lance says, mashing theforwardbutton on his controller. “I’ve just gotta beat Zarkon’s robot suit.”“Lance…”“Ipromise, Keith,” Lance continues, eyes glued to the screen. “But this is areallyimportant fight.”“…Alright,” Keith agrees, his voice dripping with doubt. “But if you’re not in bed an hour from now, I’m gonna pull the plug.”





	low on sleep

“You’re still playing?”

Lance glances up from the computer screen, his eyes adjusting to focus on his boyfriend for a few seconds before turning his attention back to his game. As much as he likes to look at Keith, he can’t afford to get distracted right now. He’s about to go into the final boss battle of the game for the third time, and if he messes up now he has to start all over again from his last save point two levels ago.

“It’s one in the morning,” Keith continues disapprovingly. “Have you taken a break since I left, or have you been playing this whole time?”

“I’ll go to bed in a minute,” Lance says, mashing the  _ forward  _ button on his controller. “I’ve just gotta beat Zarkon’s robot suit.”

“Lance…”

“I  _ promise, _ Keith,” Lance continues, eyes glued to the screen. “But this is a  _ really  _ important fight.”

It’s true--the Zarkon battle is one of the biggest ones in the game. Not only does he drop the Infinity Sword and matching Paladin Armor when he dies, but his defeat is the key to befriending and teaming up with the Prince Lotor. (Nevermind the fact that Prince Lotor is supposed to turn around and stab him in the back later on in the game, leading his team into yet another boss battle.)

“…Alright,” Keith agrees, his voice dripping with doubt. “But if you’re not in bed an hour from now, I’m gonna pull the plug.”

With that, he takes a seat on the floor with his back against Lance’s bean bag chair, settling in and making himself comfortable. Lance pauses, looking down at him questioningly.

“You want to watch?” he asks unsurely. Keith hasn’t taken much interest in his video gaming habit, and there’s nothing special about  _ Legendary Defender _ that Lance can think of that would catch his interest.

Keith shrugs, pressing his side against Lance’s leg. “Show me what you’ve got,” he says, looking up at Lance with a small smile. Lance grins back, his heart swelling. Keith’s never really watched him play video games before, aside from rounds of Mario Kart at Pidge’s house. If he’s willing to watch Lance destroy Zarkon’s robot, then he might as well put on a show.

He leans forward, more energized now that Keith’s by his side, and jams the joystick forward as his character jumps at the final boss onscreen, broadsword extended. As soon as he’s close enough he mashes the buttons on his controller and performs his favorite combo--a fancy fakeout swipe of the sword followed by a powerful flying kick and a thrust of the blade. It’s strong enough to take Zarkon’s health down by about a sixth, but it costs him a lot of energy, too, so he can only use it once every few minutes.

Zarkon’s robot swings a giant arm at his character, batting her to the ground like a cat with a toy. Lance winces as his health bar gets knocked down ten points, only few away from changing from green to yellow. He hits the jump button and springs back into action, slashing his sword along the abdomen of the robot suit over and over again until scarlike cuts in the metal begin to appear. The robot shifts, angling its head down at Lance’s character and shooting a laser down at her. Lance only loses two health points before he dodges out of the way, putting up his shield and reflecting the laser back at Zarkon. It hits the robot dead-on, burning a good sized hole in the center of its chest and unbalancing it for a second.

“Nice,” Keith says, quiet but happy. Lance grins again, his attention drawn away from the screen for a split second as he glances down at his boyfriend. Keith’s focused on the screen, not as intensely as another gamer might, but with enough interest to stay invested. He looks tired--it  _ is _ one in the morning, after all--but Lance can’t help but notice how it makes him look incredibly soft.

The sound of a laser blasting through the ground snaps him back to attention. Quickly, he turns his attention back to the screen, his fingers already moving on the joystick. He glances up at his health bar, dismayed to find that he’d lost just over half of his health in the couple of seconds he’d been distracted. Zarkon must have used his special attack while he wasn’t looking--he’s lucky it hadn’t hit him full-on, or he would have surely died.

He presses a button, and his character holds her shield up, deflecting a smaller laser attack back at the robot. It burns a second hole in its chest, a few pixels up from the first one.

Lance watches triumphantly as the robot teeters, swaying back and forth on the screen before finally crashing to the ground. Its metal wings flutter once, then drop to the floor, no magic left to suspend them in the air.

“Did you do it?” Keith asks, turning to look up at him.

“Not yet,” Lance replies grimly, gesturing towards the screen with his controller. “Look.”

The door to the control compartment of the robot shudders as force is applied to it from the inside, before popping off its hinges and slamming against the screen. As it falls to the ground, a figure appears through the smoke, their silhouette becoming clearer and clearer until Zarkon himself appears, brandishing the Infinity Sword.

As soon as the cutscene ends, Lance’s character launches herself at Zarkon, her broadsword raised in the air. Zarkon blocks easily, stepping to the side and cutting his character in the leg. She cries out, pixels of red beading on her skin, and Lance flinches as her health bar is cut in half yet again. There’s no way he can win a fight against Zarkon with less than a fourth of his HP left--it’s near impossible even for the best gamers he knows!

Still, he has to try. He’s never been the type to give up in the face of a challenge, and now that Keith’s here watching him and cheering him on, he refuses to lose so easily. The sound of fingers tapping against buttons and the joystick moving back and forth fills the room as his character lunges at Zarkon again. This time she ducks low before Zarkon can swing at her, pulling her sword back before swiping it in a clean arc in front of her. Zarkon roars as the blade slices against his skin, creating a clean cut across his chest.

Lance grins, hitting the buttons on his controller to activate another combo. His character jumps in the air, seeming to hover for a couple of seconds before she drops down, spinning around and hitting Zarkon with a spinning back kick. It unbalances both of them for a second, but Lance recovers first thanks to the agility stat he’d maxed out a few levels ago. (Thank god he did, too, or he’d never be able to win this battle.)

He presses the joystick as far forward as it will go, watching as his character sprints forward with her sword pointed towards Zarkon’s heart. Her blade clashes against his, metal sliding back and forth as they fight for power. Lance mashes the down button frantically, eyebrows drawing together in concentration as Zarkon’s sprite begins to shake and tremble. He holds his breath as his character draws her sword back to deliver the finishing blow.

The screen goes dark, a clean slicing sound filling the room through the speakers accompanied by a flash of white light. Letters begin to appear one by one, until  _ You defeated Zarkon! _ is spelled out against a dark background.

“Yes!” Lance exclaims, fist-pumping triumphantly. After three tries, two broken chest plates, and countless hours racking up enough experience to upgrade his stats, he’s finally done it! He watches intently as the screen fades back to the battleground, eyes following the Infinity Sword as it floats over to his character until it’s just within reach. He turns to Keith, fully ready to explain the gigantic impact the new sword and armor have on the game, but he stops short when he sees his face.

Keith’s asleep, his head tipped to the side in a way that can’t possibly be comfortable. His expression is peaceful and serene, his mouth open a fraction of an inch and his eyes relaxed and softly closed. All of a sudden Lance remembers how late it is, how Keith had stayed up just to watch him play a game he barely knows anything about, and his heart swells a little. He really couldn’t ask for a better boyfriend.

_ That’s enough gaming for one night,  _ he thinks, moving the joystick again and making his character walk to the new checkpoint before turning the console off. He sets his controller on the coffee table, then leans down to press a kiss to Keith’s cheek.

“Come on,” he says as Keith stirs, blinking up at him blearily. “Time for bed.”

“Did you win?” Keith asks, his voice soft. Lance smiles down at him, nodding.

“On twenty-four health points,” he says proudly, keeping his voice low.

Keith stretches, bringing a hand up to rub at his neck. “I’m sorry I fell asleep,” he says sheepishly, looking up at Lance again. “I wanted to watch you play.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Lance replies, brushing hair back from Keith’s forehead before standing. “It’s late. Let’s go to bed, okay?”

“Okay,” Keith agrees, accepting the hand Lance extends to him and pulling himself off the ground. He leans against Lance’s side, his hair tickling Lance’s neck as he does. “This was nice, though. Can I watch you play again some time?”

“Sure,” Lance says, draping an arm over his shoulders and pulling him closer. “You can watch me beat Prince Lotor later on.”

“Looking forward to it,” Keith mumbles, reaching up to tangle his fingers with Lance’s as they head towards the bedroom. Lance smiles, feeling his eyelids grow heavy as the adrenaline from his win starts to wear off. Normally he’d want to stay up another hour or so before he’d start to get tired, but ever since Keith started chastising him about getting a good night’s sleep, he finds himself going to bed earlier and earlier.

_ It’s a worthy sacrifice, _ he decides, pulling Keith against his chest as they lay in bed together.  _ Anything would be a worthy sacrifice for him. _

And with a happy heart and a smile on his face, he drifts off to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed : )  
> [My Tumblr](https://djbunn3.tumblr.com/)


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